After All Our Nightmares
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AtS/BtVS Crossovers › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
4
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Currently Reading:
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Category:
AtS/BtVS Crossovers › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
4
Views:
1,411
Reviews:
1
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I own neither Buffy The Vampire Slayer Or Angel. Nor do I intend to make any profit from them.
4
After All Our Nightmares (4/?)
Faith raised an eyebrow at Angel’s groan. “What’s the sitch, big guy?”
“Remember how I told you about Holtz kidnapping Connor?” Faith nodded silently. “Holtz trained Justine, she was his second in command. She helped him kidnap Connor, almost killed Wesley, and helped Connor imprison me in the sea after framing me for Holtz’s murder.”
“So she’s an even bigger fan of yours than me.”
Faith ignored Xander’s unhelpful comment. “Ya wanna sit this one out?”
Angel’s mouth opened and closed. “No,” the vampire shook his head. “She’ll recognise Connor anyway. And we can’t risk splitting our forces, not at night. Not when meeting a potentially hostile force.”
“Oh,” Xander groaned, “meetings with old enemies are always such joy-filled occasions.”
* * *
“Here’s how it’s going to work,” Angel looked towards his son. “She’ll recognise both me and Connor, so we’ll tail you and only come in if there’s trouble. Illyria will stay behind to guard the vans. Faith will do the talking. A Slayer will impress them-.”
“You hope.”
Angel glanced at Xander. “I doubt anybody outside of here has any idea what damage the Mass Calling caused.”
“I wasn’t thinking of that.” Xander shook his head. “There’s more than a few people who say the Slayers didn’t do enough to stop-.”
“Eighty percent of us dead in the first week,” Faith snapped. “How’s that for trying?”
Xander appeared unmoved by his lover’s fury. Angel on the other hand felt sure that if Faith’s rage had been directed at him he’d be ashes. “It’s not what I think,” Xander calmly retorted. “Just what some hardliners do.” The Sunnydaler’s one-eye turned from the east coast native to him. “This Justine seems like a real hard case to me.”
Angel scowled. Xander had an unerring and annoying habit of spotting problems and seeing the flaws in plans. “She is,” he conceded. “But unless you have a better plan?”
“I don’t,” Xander shrugged. “Only thing is if they have an One-Eye and a Faith, they’ll be expecting -.”
“A Dark Man?” he interrupted. “I thought Groo could wear some of my clothes and stand in.” After all it wouldn’t be the first time.
Xander chuckled before glancing at Groo. “You’ll have to remember not to smile.”
“They might not be happy giving up a kid?” This time it was Faith who objected.
“The book says they’re orphans,” Angel said. “They’ll be pleased to get rid of a mouth to feed.”
“They will doubtless want something in exchange,” Illyria put in.
“I’ve got a couple of dozen stakes, a couple of crossbows, and a hundred bolts,” Xander offered.
Angel smiled thinly. The ‘boy’ was a carpentry wizard. “This raises another problem,” Angel looked towards Faith. “Once we got the kid, we gotta care for it.”
Angel grimaced. Travelling the country with children was going to complicate an already perilous journey. “Let’s concentrate on getting the child first shall we?”
* * *
Faith’s eyes peered through the stygian darkness. Even after three years she still wasn’t used to the silence and lack of illumination of an once vibrant city. A cold wind whistled around, briefly lifting the rubbish littering the street before re-depositing it on the ground. Faith shivered, the desolation rather than the wind causing the reaction. Even if they managed to banish the demons what really was left?
“There’s a building ahead that looks to have been a 1930s cinema,” Angel’s voice crackled over the radio. “There’s two sentries on its roof. It’d be my guess that it’s the demon-hunters’ base. At the least they could have information.”
Faith shone her torch towards the drab-grey building. To judge from its derelict condition the cinema had been in decay long before the world’s collapse. “I’ll keep my radio on. If there’s any trouble-.”
“We’ll come running,” Angel announced.
“Five by five.” Faith looked towards her companions – Xan, Kate, and Groo. “We’re on.”
After a nervous lick of her lips Faith led her gang across the empty street, making no attempt to conceal their presence. They were half-way across the road when the cinema’s ornate doors swung open and a quartet of crossbowmen strode out, flanking a hard-faced, wiry red-head with a shotgun in her hands. “We’re not open for strays.”
“Hey,” Faith spread her hands and shot the woman he recognised from Angel’s description as Justine Cooper her best shit-eating grin. “Do we look like the great unwashed?” Okay, so she hadn’t a bath or a shower in months, running water was a bitch to find these days. “Name’s Faith.” Faith smirked at the men’s gasps. She was real used to that reaction from guys. “That’s One-Eye, The Dark Man I’m guessing you recognise, she’s Kate. Now we’ve all been introduced, how about you step aside and let us in?”
“What do you want?” Justine’s face was hard as stone. Now there was a chick who wasn’t impressed by reputations.
Faith looked left and right down the empty street. “You’ve got a nice hideout here, about you invite us in off the street ‘fore someone sees us?”
Justine hesitated before nodding, suspicious gaze still fixed on them. This was real welcomin’. “Okay, but you’ll have to hand over your weapons.”
“Oh come on.” Faith shook her head and chuckled. “We both know the only way ya’re gettin’ our weapons is by prising them out of our cold, dead hands.”
Justine’s face tightened, this wasn’t a woman who liked being balked. “You best come in.”
“See if ya give a little, don’t it make ya feel good?” Faith asked rhetorically.
The resistance leader just glared as she and her companions backed into the darkened cinema. Inside, the cinema’s ticket booth was unoccupied. Some way back stood what had once been the refreshment counter, built into the foyer’s rear wall; it was occupied by another quartet of crossbowmen, their bows pointed precisely at them. The passageways to the refreshment counter’s left and right were both barricaded with two crossbowmen beneath each blockade. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any popcorn?”
“Someone tell you were funny, Slayer? They lied.” Faith’s grin widened as the other woman’s hostility. B was far from the first woman to be threatened either by her molten hotness or smart mouth, and god willing Justine wouldn’t be the last. She supposed it would be smart to dial it down a little, but it wasn’t her style. “You’re not going any further until you tell us what you want,” Justine’s tone was like flint.
“Yeah,” Faith nodded. Fang had warned her not to give away how important the child was, doing so would only raise the price. Like she couldn’t work that out for herself. “We’re looking for a kid, ‘bout three years old with a birth sign on their neck. Kid’ll be an orphan.”
“Sounds like Rex Garner,” commented one of the men backing Justine.
“Rex is Latin for king.”
Faith digested Kate’s murmur with a barely discernable nod. Sounded like they’d found their kid, now all they had to do was actually get him. “Why do you want him?”
“I don’t think that’s important,” Faith replied. “Just what you’ll get for him.” Her eyes remained fixed on Jasmine. “Xander, honey, show ‘em your stuff.”
Xander threw his two bags down in the space between them. “A couple of dozen stakes, two crossbows, and a hundred bolts.”
One of the men crouched down before the bags and peered inside before looking up at the red-head. “These stakes are real good quality.”
Justine appeared unimpressed. “We still haven’t heard why you want the boy?” The red-head half-smiled. “You don’t seem the motherly type.”
“Maybe not,” Faith chuckled, “but I’ve always been the experimental type.” Her face hardened. “Look the whys don’t matter. Fact is ya’ve got one less mouth to feed and a kid less to worry about. As a bonus ya’re getting’ a shit-load of quality weaponry. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.”
“The children are our future,” Justine commented.
“Sounds like a song to me.” Faith’s mouth pulled up into a half-smile at Xander’s muttered comment. Her mouth opened in a reply.
“Faith!” Suddenly her radio crackled into like. “About thirty vampires coming in fast, moving from roof to roof.
“FUCK!” Faith cursed. One of the side-effects of the fall was that few people now lived in their original homes. With the fall of civilisations, things such as deed of ownership meant fuck all. As a result the rule of invitation rarely applied, vamps could come and go as they pleased. “Get your ass in fast, Angel!”
“Angel!” Justine snapped. “You’re in league with him!”
* * *
Xander shot Faith a reproachful glare. His girl-friend and her big mouth. “Now’s not the time,” he commented. “We need to get to cover fast!”
Justine continued to scowl at the Slayer before reluctantly nodding. “Very well, you,” Justine’s glare intensified, “come with me to the right. Blondie and Dark Man get behind the counter, and One-Eye go to the left. No-body make a move without my say-so.”
Faith shrugged. “Five by five, what about other entrances?”
“The rear exits are all welded shut while the sewer entrance has the office safe on top of it,” Justine scowled. “Now any more questions or can we get into position?”
“Jesus,” Faith snorted. “Tetchy much?”
Xander continued to shake his head at his girl-friend’s complete lack of diplomatic skills as he made through the makeshift barricade of ripped up cinema seats. Sometimes his girl-friend had the social graces of a pissed off rhino.
And that was on a good day.
As Xander crouched down behind the barricade, he noted but ignored the suspicious looks on his companions’ faces. Suspicion and fear were a now a fact of life.
The seconds stretched on and on as Xander waited for the vampires to attack.
Faith raised an eyebrow at Angel’s groan. “What’s the sitch, big guy?”
“Remember how I told you about Holtz kidnapping Connor?” Faith nodded silently. “Holtz trained Justine, she was his second in command. She helped him kidnap Connor, almost killed Wesley, and helped Connor imprison me in the sea after framing me for Holtz’s murder.”
“So she’s an even bigger fan of yours than me.”
Faith ignored Xander’s unhelpful comment. “Ya wanna sit this one out?”
Angel’s mouth opened and closed. “No,” the vampire shook his head. “She’ll recognise Connor anyway. And we can’t risk splitting our forces, not at night. Not when meeting a potentially hostile force.”
“Oh,” Xander groaned, “meetings with old enemies are always such joy-filled occasions.”
* * *
“Here’s how it’s going to work,” Angel looked towards his son. “She’ll recognise both me and Connor, so we’ll tail you and only come in if there’s trouble. Illyria will stay behind to guard the vans. Faith will do the talking. A Slayer will impress them-.”
“You hope.”
Angel glanced at Xander. “I doubt anybody outside of here has any idea what damage the Mass Calling caused.”
“I wasn’t thinking of that.” Xander shook his head. “There’s more than a few people who say the Slayers didn’t do enough to stop-.”
“Eighty percent of us dead in the first week,” Faith snapped. “How’s that for trying?”
Xander appeared unmoved by his lover’s fury. Angel on the other hand felt sure that if Faith’s rage had been directed at him he’d be ashes. “It’s not what I think,” Xander calmly retorted. “Just what some hardliners do.” The Sunnydaler’s one-eye turned from the east coast native to him. “This Justine seems like a real hard case to me.”
Angel scowled. Xander had an unerring and annoying habit of spotting problems and seeing the flaws in plans. “She is,” he conceded. “But unless you have a better plan?”
“I don’t,” Xander shrugged. “Only thing is if they have an One-Eye and a Faith, they’ll be expecting -.”
“A Dark Man?” he interrupted. “I thought Groo could wear some of my clothes and stand in.” After all it wouldn’t be the first time.
Xander chuckled before glancing at Groo. “You’ll have to remember not to smile.”
“They might not be happy giving up a kid?” This time it was Faith who objected.
“The book says they’re orphans,” Angel said. “They’ll be pleased to get rid of a mouth to feed.”
“They will doubtless want something in exchange,” Illyria put in.
“I’ve got a couple of dozen stakes, a couple of crossbows, and a hundred bolts,” Xander offered.
Angel smiled thinly. The ‘boy’ was a carpentry wizard. “This raises another problem,” Angel looked towards Faith. “Once we got the kid, we gotta care for it.”
Angel grimaced. Travelling the country with children was going to complicate an already perilous journey. “Let’s concentrate on getting the child first shall we?”
* * *
Faith’s eyes peered through the stygian darkness. Even after three years she still wasn’t used to the silence and lack of illumination of an once vibrant city. A cold wind whistled around, briefly lifting the rubbish littering the street before re-depositing it on the ground. Faith shivered, the desolation rather than the wind causing the reaction. Even if they managed to banish the demons what really was left?
“There’s a building ahead that looks to have been a 1930s cinema,” Angel’s voice crackled over the radio. “There’s two sentries on its roof. It’d be my guess that it’s the demon-hunters’ base. At the least they could have information.”
Faith shone her torch towards the drab-grey building. To judge from its derelict condition the cinema had been in decay long before the world’s collapse. “I’ll keep my radio on. If there’s any trouble-.”
“We’ll come running,” Angel announced.
“Five by five.” Faith looked towards her companions – Xan, Kate, and Groo. “We’re on.”
After a nervous lick of her lips Faith led her gang across the empty street, making no attempt to conceal their presence. They were half-way across the road when the cinema’s ornate doors swung open and a quartet of crossbowmen strode out, flanking a hard-faced, wiry red-head with a shotgun in her hands. “We’re not open for strays.”
“Hey,” Faith spread her hands and shot the woman he recognised from Angel’s description as Justine Cooper her best shit-eating grin. “Do we look like the great unwashed?” Okay, so she hadn’t a bath or a shower in months, running water was a bitch to find these days. “Name’s Faith.” Faith smirked at the men’s gasps. She was real used to that reaction from guys. “That’s One-Eye, The Dark Man I’m guessing you recognise, she’s Kate. Now we’ve all been introduced, how about you step aside and let us in?”
“What do you want?” Justine’s face was hard as stone. Now there was a chick who wasn’t impressed by reputations.
Faith looked left and right down the empty street. “You’ve got a nice hideout here, about you invite us in off the street ‘fore someone sees us?”
Justine hesitated before nodding, suspicious gaze still fixed on them. This was real welcomin’. “Okay, but you’ll have to hand over your weapons.”
“Oh come on.” Faith shook her head and chuckled. “We both know the only way ya’re gettin’ our weapons is by prising them out of our cold, dead hands.”
Justine’s face tightened, this wasn’t a woman who liked being balked. “You best come in.”
“See if ya give a little, don’t it make ya feel good?” Faith asked rhetorically.
The resistance leader just glared as she and her companions backed into the darkened cinema. Inside, the cinema’s ticket booth was unoccupied. Some way back stood what had once been the refreshment counter, built into the foyer’s rear wall; it was occupied by another quartet of crossbowmen, their bows pointed precisely at them. The passageways to the refreshment counter’s left and right were both barricaded with two crossbowmen beneath each blockade. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any popcorn?”
“Someone tell you were funny, Slayer? They lied.” Faith’s grin widened as the other woman’s hostility. B was far from the first woman to be threatened either by her molten hotness or smart mouth, and god willing Justine wouldn’t be the last. She supposed it would be smart to dial it down a little, but it wasn’t her style. “You’re not going any further until you tell us what you want,” Justine’s tone was like flint.
“Yeah,” Faith nodded. Fang had warned her not to give away how important the child was, doing so would only raise the price. Like she couldn’t work that out for herself. “We’re looking for a kid, ‘bout three years old with a birth sign on their neck. Kid’ll be an orphan.”
“Sounds like Rex Garner,” commented one of the men backing Justine.
“Rex is Latin for king.”
Faith digested Kate’s murmur with a barely discernable nod. Sounded like they’d found their kid, now all they had to do was actually get him. “Why do you want him?”
“I don’t think that’s important,” Faith replied. “Just what you’ll get for him.” Her eyes remained fixed on Jasmine. “Xander, honey, show ‘em your stuff.”
Xander threw his two bags down in the space between them. “A couple of dozen stakes, two crossbows, and a hundred bolts.”
One of the men crouched down before the bags and peered inside before looking up at the red-head. “These stakes are real good quality.”
Justine appeared unimpressed. “We still haven’t heard why you want the boy?” The red-head half-smiled. “You don’t seem the motherly type.”
“Maybe not,” Faith chuckled, “but I’ve always been the experimental type.” Her face hardened. “Look the whys don’t matter. Fact is ya’ve got one less mouth to feed and a kid less to worry about. As a bonus ya’re getting’ a shit-load of quality weaponry. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.”
“The children are our future,” Justine commented.
“Sounds like a song to me.” Faith’s mouth pulled up into a half-smile at Xander’s muttered comment. Her mouth opened in a reply.
“Faith!” Suddenly her radio crackled into like. “About thirty vampires coming in fast, moving from roof to roof.
“FUCK!” Faith cursed. One of the side-effects of the fall was that few people now lived in their original homes. With the fall of civilisations, things such as deed of ownership meant fuck all. As a result the rule of invitation rarely applied, vamps could come and go as they pleased. “Get your ass in fast, Angel!”
“Angel!” Justine snapped. “You’re in league with him!”
* * *
Xander shot Faith a reproachful glare. His girl-friend and her big mouth. “Now’s not the time,” he commented. “We need to get to cover fast!”
Justine continued to scowl at the Slayer before reluctantly nodding. “Very well, you,” Justine’s glare intensified, “come with me to the right. Blondie and Dark Man get behind the counter, and One-Eye go to the left. No-body make a move without my say-so.”
Faith shrugged. “Five by five, what about other entrances?”
“The rear exits are all welded shut while the sewer entrance has the office safe on top of it,” Justine scowled. “Now any more questions or can we get into position?”
“Jesus,” Faith snorted. “Tetchy much?”
Xander continued to shake his head at his girl-friend’s complete lack of diplomatic skills as he made through the makeshift barricade of ripped up cinema seats. Sometimes his girl-friend had the social graces of a pissed off rhino.
And that was on a good day.
As Xander crouched down behind the barricade, he noted but ignored the suspicious looks on his companions’ faces. Suspicion and fear were a now a fact of life.
The seconds stretched on and on as Xander waited for the vampires to attack.